This thread is more for the owners on here that actually ride their bikes and put on some higher mileage. If you don't ride much or only do ride in pristine conditions of perfect temperatures and relative humidity without the chance of rain, then you can skip this one..    If this offends you, you really should get out and ride more..

If you ride in all types of weather and conditions after a period of time the finely finned radiator we have on our bike will loose its efficiency for cooling the motor.

 Sure its important to have a radiator guard on the bike to make sure you have some protection from stones and debris, and a fender extender to compliment the rad guard, but now that alot of the bikes are 5 years old with some reaching towards 100K miles, something that is easily overlooked is the condition of the outside of the radiator.

I pulled my radiator guard off today because I could visibly see alot of black dirt and bug pieces stuck in the very fine fins throughout the entire radiator. Since the radiator is made of bare untreated aluminum I used a good cleaner you can pick up at your local NAPA Dealer....




If you find your bike in the same situation, cover the back of the front fender with a rag and (outside or at the car wash) spray it liberally into all the fins of the radiatior.  There is a mild phospheric acid in the cleaner and will foam and cook the dirt off of the entire exchanger surface..Do NOT breathe the fumes from this chemical action! Leave it on for 5 minutes or so... no more than 10.. Rinse and flush with semi hi pressure water... be extremely careful not to use too much pressure that would bend the fins of the rad.  You can also use compressed air from a distance to blow out the excess water out when finished.

Re-install your rad guard and you are good to go..

I would wash thru my radiatior at the car wash every now and then, but this product, though I wouldn't use it often, really brightens up and cleans the metal to make your radiator have its maximum cooling efficiency again.. It was noticeable on the dash running one level lower than before, on average... and taking much longer to rise in temperature. It also cooled down much faster once moving again.

You can see how intricate and small the fin/tube passages are on our bikes radiatior..







Clean as new!

JJ

    Thanks!

How is it if it hits a painted area by mistake ? I would like to try and see how it is . Could always use cooler running here in Tucson , can't wait for winter

If it's any color but neutron silver, it won't make any difference at all.

How is it if it hits a painted area by mistake ? I would like to try and see how it is . Could always use cooler running here in Tucson , can't wait for winter

Be careful in the application stage... just stop and wipe it off. I covered the back side of the front wheel and brakes just in case.. was probably overkill. It sprayed on controllably.

When you are washing it out its deluted.  Rinse well. I blew mine off with an air hose and wiped it down before riding.  I think you have a different enviroment there in Tucson.. Not the same road grime. But whatever is stuck to the radiator, It should clean up nicely and make a difference.

My bike never over heated, It just slowly started running hotter and was noticed on the temp guage.

JJ

Great post and info. Jerry. Thanks.

I too have noticed everything you mentioned- the bike warms up faster (both to temp. and slightly beyond when moving slowly) and is much slower to cool down than it used to be. Some of that is absolutely the radiator guard but some has occurred after the radiator guard was installed. I will give your idea a try.

It would also be great to paint it black at the same time and while it was clean but that would require taking it off the bike and that is a lot more work. Maybe at the next maint. interval (100K miles).

Brian

This thread is more for the owners on here that actually ride their bikes and put on some higher mileage. If you don't ride much or only do ride in pristine conditions of perfect temperatures and relative humidity without the chance of rain, then you can skip this one..    If this offends you, you really should get out and ride more..

If you ride in all types of weather and conditions after a period of time the finely finned radiator we have on our bike will loose its efficiency for cooling the motor.

 Sure its important to have a radiator guard on the bike to make sure you have some protection from stones and debris, and a fender extender to compliment the rad guard, but now that alot of the bikes are 5 years old with some reaching towards 100K miles, something that is easily overlooked is the condition of the outside of the radiator.

I pulled my radiator guard off today because I could visibly see alot of black dirt and bug pieces stuck in the very fine fins throughout the entire radiator. Since the radiator is made of bare untreated aluminum I used a good cleaner you can pick up at your local NAPA Dealer....

<snip>

JJ

Thanks for the info

Brian,

I thought about painting it too.. But then thought maybe the paint would insulate somewhat and not allow maximum cooling. Bare aluminum exchangers transfer the best.. For heating or cooling....

Lets just let ZG powder coat his and see how that works out first?

JJ

Brian,

I thought about painting it too.. But then thought maybe the paint would insulate somewhat and not allow maximum cooling. Bare aluminum exchangers transfer the best.. For heating or cooling....

Lets just let ZG powder coat his and see how that works out first?

JJ

 

Brian,



Lets just let ZG powder coat his and see how that works out first?

JJ

Don't you actually have to start the thing to see if it would cool better?

Definitely gonna do this.  I have noticed some extra buildup and was thinking about pulling the radiator to thoroughly clean it.  Thanks.

Yep, the paint would radiate more heat if painted black but transfer less heat to the air- it would probably be a step backwards in heat transfer at the temperatures we are talking about (always less than 300 F ). But my radiator is starting to corrode pretty significantly and a coat of paint would at least slow that process down. I have quite a few miles left before running out the second warranty extension. 

The powder coat is a good idea though, it would also serve to close up all those peasky holes in the radiator that tend to collect bugs and let air through.

Brian

Brian,

I thought about painting it too.. But then thought maybe the paint would insulate somewhat and not allow maximum cooling. Bare aluminum exchangers transfer the best.. For heating or cooling....

Lets just let ZG powder coat his and see how that works out first?

JJ